A Sick Day
by IlanaNight
Summary: Hanji discovers that Eren can indeed fall ill, quite ill indeed. This bothers Levi quite a bit more than he lets on. Prompt from an anonymous user on tumblr


Titan powers or not, it seemed that Eren could in fact fall ill, and very ill for that matter, if this example was anything to go by.

It had set in during the night at an alarming rate. Eren had gone to bed earlier than usual, fatigued from a day spent training with Hanji and Levi, and sporting a bit of a headache. As Eren drifted off to sleep, he wondered why his room felt warmer than usual. The dungeon chamber was usually quite cold, as the sun and heat of the outside world never quite reached it. But, Eren abandoned the thought as he drifted off into unconsciousness.

His sleep was a fitful one, tossing and turning in his bed. The blankets that had once been wrapped around him now resided on the floor, thrown off in a fit of heat. Soft noises of discomfort accompanied the pained expression on Eren's face as his breath came in shallow pants. His eyes flickered back and forth behind eyelids without pattern.

When Hanji came. to rouse him in the morning, he looked no better. Eren's skin was drained of all colour save for the high flush across his cheekbones. Sweat plastered brown locks of hair to his forehead and trickled down from his temples. Despite the heat pouring off Eren in waves, the teen was still shivering, curled in on himself to conserve warmth. The sight brought a frown to Hanji's face, but as she left to inform Levi of the situation, she made sure to note Eren's still-present susceptibility to disease.

Hanji warned the guards not to step into Eren's room, worried that whatever was plaguing the boy might be contagious. She would have to move him to the infirmary and collect data before allowing anyone but herself and the other commanding officers near him. It wouldn't do to have the entire Special Operations squad brought to their knees by illness in these harsh times.

Out of respect for the Captain, Hanji knocked before entering Levi's office. Failure to do so on past occasions had earned her harsh glares, snide comments, and the odd threat thrown in. With the bad news she was delivering, Hanji knew it would not be good to start the conversation with Levi in a sour mood.

The slate-eyed man was hunched over his desk, signing reports with a flourish. The papers were stacked in neat piles to his left and right, one of completed forms, the other of ones not yet touched. Running a base for the Survey Corps so far from humanity regrettably involved a lot of paperwork to keep the forces organised and informed. As such, a good portion of his mornings and evenings doing that paperwork. While tedious, it offered him the opportunity to wind down from whatever else might have been his duty for the day, so Levi saw no reason to complain.

At Hanji's entrance, Levi looked up from his with with disinterest. He waves a hand, welcoming her to sit in the chair across from him, "Odd of you to be visiting me this early, Hanji. To what do I owe the pleasure?" His voice dripped with bland half-sarcasm, though a tad bit of genuine curiosity caused his eyes to light.

An apologetic expression dawned on Hanji'a face and she sat in the open chair. "I doubt you'll be owing much pleasure once I tell you, Captain." Levi's expression told her to continue and so she sighed, "Eren's terribly ill. I'm not sure what with as of yet, but I worry that he may need to be quarantined. I hadn't thought things as simple as disease could affect him, what with his abilities, and yet here we have proof of just the opposite."

The only sign of Levi reacting to Hanji's news was his mouth flattening into a line. This certainly wasn't a development he had been expecting. He weighed the options in his head, knowing that no matter what the truth behind Eren's condition might be, he would have to be confined to the infirmary for sanitary reasons. Though the dungeon had been included in his cleaning of the castle, the air down there was not conducive to healing. Not to mention the possibility that whatever Eren had come down with might be transmittable, and thus would require his separation from the rest of the squad.

Levi rose from his chair, grabbing his coat and pulling it on with the softest hint of a sigh, "Well, I suppose I should accompany you to move the brat. We'll give him a bed in the infirmary and you can perform whatever tests you need. Basic treatment for illness until then, I presume?"

With a nod, Hanji joined him in standing, the two falling into step beside each other as they made their way down to the dungeon room. Hanji theorised aloud to herself, but Levi offered no input, or even a sign that he was listening. The researcher would have her answers in due time, and then they would be of interest to him. For the moment, he was focused on how to solve this problem as swiftly and painlessly as possible.

Levi didn't bother to knock when he entered Eren's room, there was no reason to when the boy wasn't likely to come and open the door, or be doing anything that required privacy when sick. He was unsurprised to find that the brat hadn't moved from his bed, though perhaps from how the sheets were mussed, he may have done some more thrashing. Subconsciously his nose wrinkled at the disorganisation, but he supposed fixing it would have to wait.

Without fear of catching whatever Eren had come down with, Levi walked over to the teen's bed, unceremoniously lifting him and then walking back out. The sudden movement caused Eren to stir, but only just, blinking his eyes and blearily looking up at Levi before green irises rolled back into his head. Levi rolled his eyes with exasperation, not allowing any of the worry or concern that had flared up to show on his face. He gestured to Hanji with his head and the squad leader followed along behind him, looking eager to begin her tests.

The journey to the infirmary was much like the one the two had made down to Eren's room, though this time Levi really wasn't focused on what Hanji had to say. The limp, unresponsive weight in his arms was much more attention-grabbing than Hanji's theories on what could be bothering him. The most Eren had done while in Levi's arms aside from his seconds of half-consciousness was burrow closer to Levi's chest in search of warmth. If not for the feverish heat, Levi would have thought that Eren was in the throes of death for all his response.

When they reached the infirmary, Levi set Eren down on an empty bed in the corner and drew the curtains. He turned to Hanji with a tense set to his mouth, "Report to me with whatever you find, start by determining if he's contagious. I'm sure that his friends will want to visit him if they can."

With that he turned on his heel, though before exiting the infirmary he caught Hanji's comment and scoffed.

"Surely you'll want to visit too, Captain. Alleviate some of your worries."

As if he would ever be worried. Nothing phased him, he was well past the point in time where such a thing as a boy being sick would put him on edge. He would simply go back to his desk work until Hanji reported back, it would be a productive day just as he had meant it to be.

However, when he reached his office, he was unpleasantly surprised to find it was not empty as he had left it. It had gained two new occupants in his absence, one who looked ready to commit genocide, the other prepared to have a breakdown. He should have expected this, really. Those two couldn't be kept in the dark for long.

Levi walked past Eren's friends to sit at his desk, not acknowledging them until he was seated, "Now, in lieu of the complicated circumstances, I'm going to pretend that the two of you knocked, were invited in, and politely entered. Take a seat." As he waited for them to comply, he went back to signing reports, albeit with a harsher stroke, the motion not looking as graceful as before.

Mikasa was the first to speak, and when she did, it was with heated displeasure, "Eren's sick. I need to see him. Where is he?"

"In the infirmary, where the ill belong. You won't be permitted to see him until Hanji has decreed it safe, so I suppose you'll just have to hold off on that for the moment." Levi hadn't even bothered to look up to meet her gaze, no sign of caring in his voice or face, and rage flared in Mikasa's eyes at that, but Armin placed a hand on her shoulder, silencing her.

"Captain Levi's right, Mikasa. We have to wait until Hanji says we can visit. Eren probably needs rest."

And so by unspoken agreement, the three sat in silence in Levi's office, the only noise the scraping of a quill against paper. What seemed like hours passed while Levi signed away, Mikasa tapped her foot against the floor, and Armin stared off into space with an expression of concern, and perhaps it was. None of the three were focused on time.

Levi's patience with the written word was beginning to run thin when he heard a knock at the door and let out a minute sigh of relief. It irked him that Eren's situation was bothering him, even if it was only on a basic level. Nothing bothered him, he was known for his cold, unfeeling demeanor. A sick subordinate should not affect him so.

Hanji burst in with a bright smile on her face, "Good news, Captain~!" Her eyes caught sight of the two other inhabitants of the room, "And to Eren's friends as well~. He doesn't appear to be contagious in any way, so he's all clear to have visitors. From what I can gather, this is some sort of response to the exertion of switching between his Titan and human forms so often, but it will improve with time, I'm sure."

Before Hanji had even finished her excited speech, Mikasa was out of her seat, pulling Armin along with her. She dragged the blond boy out, pausing for a moment to thank Hanji for examining Eren before the two were gone.

With their absence, Levi could finally relax a bit, leaning back in his chair and cracking his neck. He had spent too long poring over those reports today with little stretching in between. Perhaps it would be good of him to go visit Eren in the hospital later today, give him an opportunity to walk about rather than stay confined to the office.

He laced his fingers together, elbows resting on his desk, "Thank you for the report, Hanji. Did you get all the data you needed?"

The bespectacled woman nodded with a grin, "Oh, yes, that and more! It's much easier to check his vitals when he's unconscious, you know, even if they are muddled by this bug. I'll have to spend some time this evening adding all that I saw to my research notes. But for now, it's nearing dinner. Are you going to join us, Levi?"

The dark haired man shrugged softly, rising from his chair, "I suppose. And after that maybe I will go in and check on the brat. Can't have him doing anything stupid while he's got illness as an excuse."

A soft laugh fell from Hanji's lips and she shook her head before walking out, whispering too low for Levi to hear, "Ah, but in reality, is the one making excuses not you?"

Dinner passed without event. A few members of the squad asked after Eren, prompting Levi to wonder how so many people knew of the brats condition, but he simply answered their questions and returned to his cup of tea. His nerves were much more settled now, and he tried to convince himself it was because he had stopped working on papers and was drinking his favourite tea, and not that he was happy Eren would recover and he planned to visit him this evening. Surely that would never be a calming experience.

When curfew for the general troops came around, Levi left his room and made his way down to the infirmary. The nurse smiled as she allowed him in before excusing herself to sleep. Levi promised to draw the curtains and blow out the candles once he left so the nurse wouldn't have to return later. It wouldn't be a difficult task, and he intended to be in the infirmary anyway, why not simply aid her as best he could?

Soon the room was empty aside from Levi and the prone form in the last bed by the window. He made his way over, pulling up the chair in the corner to Eren's bedside. There was a towel over the teen's forehead and another in a bowl of cold water on the table to keep his fever down, and from the looks of it, the method was working.

Eren's hospital bed was nowhere near as disheveled as the one down in his room had been and his breaths were deeper, fuller. Hopefully this illness would pass swiftly, Eren looked terrible when his eyes weren't gleaming with their usual passion.

….Levi brushed that thought away, unsure of its origins, as his hand reached out to brush Eren's hair out of his face. He was surprised when the soft touch caused Eren's face to twitch, but was pleased that the boy was feeling well enough to respond to things.

When Eren's eyes fluttered open confusedly, Levi's mouth was still turned up in the slightest hint of a smile. "Captain Levi?" The teen sounded surprised that the man would even be there, but Levi waved off his questions, placing a finger to Eren's lips.

"Shut up, brat. You're supposed to be resting, don't just wake up because I'm here." He chuckled softly before moving his hand back to rest in brown locks of hair, "You feeling any better, Eren?"

Eren nodded, yawning with a smile, "Yeah. Much better than I was feeling when you carried me up here this morning, though that was a nice feeling. You're really strong, even though I don't remember much, I remember feeling safe and warm. Thank you." Even as he spoke his eyes slipped closed again, the sweet tone of exhaustion lacing his voice. By the time he had finished, Eren's head was leaning into Levi's hand and sleep had claimed him again.

Surprise lit Levi's face at Eren's comments, though he told himself it was the fever speaking for the boy, he likely would remember none of this come morning. Still, it was with strange fondness that he regarded Eren's gratitude. He hummed softly, shrugging.

"There's no need to thank me. It was the best option to take for your safety. And I was worried for your health. I'm glad you'll be better soon, Eren." He bit his lip in thought before resigning himself. The boy wouldn't remember this in the morning. "Seeing you like that made me anxious, I could barely focus on my paperwork today. I care about you and your well being more than I should."

And with that Levi leant down to press a kiss to Eren's lips on impulse. He was not expecting a hand to reach up and pull him closer as the teen responded to the kiss. When Levi pulled away, confused and somewhat flushed, he heard Eren chuckle.

"I love you too, Captain Levi."


End file.
